For as many of you were who were baptized in Christ, have put on Christ. (Gal 3:27 ESV)
I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. (Gal 2:20 ESV)
To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. (Col 1:27 ESV)
Step One – Read these passages slowly, attentively. Allow yourself to be taken in by the words – pay attention to any word or phrase that strikes you in the passage. (If you haven’t studied these verses, you may find this first reading will stir observation questions in you – such as who, what when, where, how).
Step Two – Read it again. Meditate and reflect on the passage. What is it in your life that needs to hear that word or phrase? Sit in silence for a time, attending to the thoughts, images and impressions that begin to come to you. Turn that into prayer.
Step Three – What is God saying to you? What do you begin to feel called to?
Step Four – How does God want you to live this passage out? What are you resolved to do?
Lectio Quote – Incarnational Reality
In Him we become fully human. In Him, we begin to do His works. This involves incarnation, a descent of the Spirit into our deepest beings and lives. In Him, the will, the intellect, imagination, feeling and sensory being are hallowed and enlivened. We begin to fully live, to participate in the eternal, the immutable, the indestructible.
Leanne Payne, The Healing Presence, 11.
You can go through the same steps that we use for Lectio Divina for Scripture, or simply take some time and read this quote slowly and express your gratitude that we bear the Spirit of Christ in us. Christ is with us, and He is within us, by the power of the Holy Spirit. I highly recommend reading Leanne Payne here.
I am thinking out loud, here Jean, and I’d love to hear your comment on this.
It’s struck me that glory means to be one with God, to have God indwell us, to live within Incarnational Reality.
Jesus says in His prayer to His Father, “The GLORY you gave to me I have given to them, that they may be one just as WE ARE ONE… (John 17:22). Jesus full of glory, a glory that comes directly from the Father, because the Son is one with Him.
It would follow that we lost the glory God gave the human race, because our sins separated us from Him, we’re no longer one with Him.
The loss of His glory in us has left us “thin”. I am thinking of Lewis’ imagery in the Great Divorce, where he describes those arriving in Paradise has having very little substance.
So, Incarnational Reality is giving substance to our being and to fill us up with God again. Which is one of the deepest yearnings of our soul.
“And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.” (2 Cor. 3:18)
I love this Silvia – especially about the loss of God’s glory making us “thin.” The connection between glory and incarnational reality is so inspiring! “giving substance to our being”!